Safety valve



Feb. 17, 1953 cfH. FoLMsBEE SAFETY VALVE Filed Aug. 9, 1947 INVENTOR CQ/JeJLFOZMSQe y vErw/br ATTORNEY atented Feb. 17, 1953 SAFETY VALVE Clyde H. Folmsbee, Bloomsburg, Pa., ass'ignor to American Car and Foundry Company, New York, N. Y., a corporationof New Jersey Application August 9, 1947, Serial No. 767,742

1 Claim. l rhis invention relates to safety valves which are intended for use with storage vessels containing corrosive gases such as chlorine.

Safety valves as previously built for corrosive gas or similar service have had a metallic seat contact for holding the primary pressure and the entire valve has then been sealed by means of a rupture disk or other device. With such a construction corrosive gases would come in contact with the spring or other parts of the valve and cause corrosion with possible sticking of the parts or weakening of the spring. Also, since the rup- -ture disks trap a certain amount of gas within provision of an improved safety valve having the.

parts so arranged as to give a more constant operation throughout the life of the valve.

rlhese and other objects 'of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a sectional view taken substantially through the center of the valve;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 2-2 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing the valve seat and seal arrangement.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, it will be seen that the valve casing has been formed by a piece of pipe or other tubular member 4 threaded both internally and externally at its upper end and welded as at 6 to a base member 8. This base member is provided with a passage l@ and an annular rib I2 grooved to receive a sealing member which will be clamped between the valve and the tank structure by means of bolts or other devices extending through holes I4 in the base member. The upper end portion of the tubular casing 4 has a plurality of holes I6 pierced therein in order to permit the escape of gases from the interior of the valve. The base member 8 is preferably machined to provide an upstanding lip I8 having its outer surface beveled to provide a valve seat which surrounds the passage It at its upper end.

Mounted within the valve casing is an upwardly open cup-shaped valve member 22 having its walls spaced from the walls of the casing yet guided therein by means of a plurality of ribs 24. The spacing of the valve member from the casing walls is such as to provide free passageways 26 (Fig. 2) of sulcient area as to permit full discharge of matter escaping through passage I. The lower end of the 'cup-like'valve member is closed by' t-he bottom wall 28 which provides on its upper surface a seat for the spring 30 and on its lower surface is machined to provide a beveled valve seat 32 adapted to engage the valve seat 2l] previously referredto. `In wardly of the valve seat 32 the bottom wall 28 is cutaway to provide space for reception of the retaining ring 34 adapted to' be held in place by 'a spring snap ring'36'engaged in 1a groove 38 of a centrally extending boss 40. .The upper outer surface of the ring 34 is beveled and adapted to engage lightly a resilient annulus 42 of circular cross-section. This resilient annulus Eis adapted, when the valve is in-closed position, to restv lightly upon the upper edge of lip I8 and effectively seal' the valve against leakage. Outward pressure of matter in passage I0'wil1 cause the resilient member. 42to shift or be urgedtowar-d the'line of engagement between valve seating surfaces 2U and 32; In cases Where the valve seats 20 and 32 areA prefect, the 'resilient Aannulus will be without strain and only lightly engaging the lip and valve bottom 28. If, however, there is any leakage or tendency to leak between the.

valve seats, then the resilient annulus will shift toward the valve seats andprevent such leakage by wedging itself into the small area 44 bounded by the annulus, the lip I8 and the valve projection on which is formed the seat 32. With such an arrangement it will be seen that leakage can not occur until the popping point of the valve is reached and it will further be seen that the lifting area will be substantially constant throughout the life of the valve instead of varying as is the case with valves relying on metallic seats. For example, metallic seats 20 and 32 might contact only at their outer edges giving a relatively large lifting area, then as the valve wears in the areatwould decrease giving a much higher popping pom In order to hold the cup-shaped valve in position with its seat 32 in engagement with seat 20 and resilient member 42 in light engagement with lip I8, the spring 3D is provided bearing at its lower end on the bottom wall 28 and at its upper end upon the top wall 46 of the downwardly opening cup-like retaining and adjusting member 50. This adjusting and retaining member has its outer surface threaded to engage the internal threads of casing 4 and its position in the casing is adjusted by means of a Spanner wrench or other means engageable in holes 52. The downwardly directed sides of the cup-like retaining member house the upper end of the spring 30 and is adapted to be engaged by one or more set screws 54 having threaded engagement with the casing 4 and adapted to lock the adjusting member in any predetermined adjusted position. The lower edge 56 of the downwardly open cup-like adjusting member is adapted to be engaged by the upper edge 58 of the upwardly open cup-like valve member 22, thus limiting the upward movement of the valve and give protection to the spring.

In order to prevent tampering with the setting of the adjusting member 50, a cap member B8 is provided having internal threads G2 adapted to engage the external threads oi the casing 4. This cap member has a depending skirt 6d adapted `to overlap and b e spaced from the holes I6, thus directing the gases or matter escaping through holes I6 downwardly and also to prevent entrance of foreign matter into the valve. In order that the valve Ymay be sealed and thus indicate any tampering after setting a lug 18 is welded or otherwise fastened to the casing and pierced as at 12 to receive a seal which will also 4pass through a hole 'I4 in the skirt portion G4 of the cap.

From the preceding it will be seen that the valve may be made of relatively small compact parts, thus permitting a low height valve which is Aso desirable in connection with portable tanks where the projecting valve iixtures may be knocked olf `by stationary structures. It will also be seen that, as pointed out previously, the popping point of the valve will, due to the substantially constant area, remain constant throughout the llife of the valve. It will likewise be obvious that the resilient annulus 42 will protect -all parts of the valve including the valve seats from contact with the corrosive gases except during the time when popping occurs. The annulus 42 can be readily .replaced by merely removing the snap ring 36 and retaining ring 34, thus producing a. valve which can be readily -repaired when necessary. While the valve has been described more or less -in detail, it will be clear to persons skilled in the art that various modifications and rearrangements of parts may be made without departing from the `scope of the invention as 5 dened by the following claim.

What is claimed is:

In a safety valve, a body member having a passage therethrough, a body valve seat surrounding the upper end of said passage outwardly thereof, a valve reciprocable axially of the passage and having a seat engageable with said iirst named seat outwardly of the passage, resilient means normally holding said seats in engagement, an annular recess formed in the valve upwardly above said seat and adjacent thereto and outwardly beyond the inner marginal edge of the body valve seat, said recess being dened in part by a curved outer wall portion, deformable annulus of circular cross section carried in said recess inwardly of the inner edge of said valve seat, the outer wall portion of said recess having a. radius approximately the same as the radius of a cross section of the annulus and at least as great as said radius, and means lightly engaging the lower inner portion of said annulus to hold the same in position in the recess of the valve and to provide vtherewith a rst chamber inwardly of the annulus. said annulus also engaging a portion of the body member inwardly of the engaging seats defining with the valve and body member a second chamber outwardly of the annulus, and said annulus being shiftable laterally and downwardly under pressure along said curved outer wall portion and deformable into said second chamber and towards Athe cooperating surfaces o the body seat and valve seat to seal the same against leakage of fluid pressure in the passage when said seats are held in engagement by said resilient means.

CLYDE H. FOLLISBEE REFERENCES CITED rPhe following references are of record in the nle of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 150,536 Crosby May 5, 1874 151,027 Hodgins May 19, 1874 432,140 Kllborn July l5, 1890 763,208 Robinson June 2l, 1904 1,725,297 Paterson Aug. 20, 1929 2,072,271 Meadows Mar. 2, 1937 2,110,481 Crocker Mar. 8, 1938 2,479,737 Garretson Aug. 23, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 12,911 Great Britain June 7, 1904 

